A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

Thursday, 30 July 2015

I am grateful to Fr Fleming for his reflection on the recent, widely-reported, killing of a lion in Africa:

An ancient proverb, attributed (wrongly?) to Euripides says this: “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”

Nowhere is this madness more evident than among the self-appointed social and moral revolutionaries of our day. For these folks their new found morality (actually the old pagan immorality) is self-evidently true. They have no patience with those with whom they disagree. Rarely if ever do they look at their own moral inconsistencies. They either have not the wit nor the integrity or neither to allow themselves that kind of intellectual self-criticism.

So now a dentist kills a lion, a popular lion. The various celebrities (eg Ricky Gervais et al) have gone into emotional, psychological and moral meltdown. This wicked dentist is to be shunned, sent to prison, delicensed as a dentist, and otherwise publicly hounded and humiliated.

I don’t like what he did either.

But then I don’t like what other members of the medical profession do to children both born and unborn when they decide to kill them.

So let’s look for a moment at the lion killing. It seems that protesters have “placed animal toys outside Palmer’s River Duff dental practice in Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis. The practice was forced to close as protesters staged a recreation of the hunt involving cuddly toys and water pistols.”

Now what does the mass media report when accurate replicas or models of the unborn, routinely killed in abortion, are made available for people (including school students) to see? They report the emotional, psychological and moral meltdown of those who have had these things thrust before them. People are, apparently, traumatised by the mere sight of such replicas or models. Not so the animal toys!

And what happens when pro-lifers stage a peaceful demonstration outside an abortion clinic? They are condemned, harassed, even arrested. They are forbidden to go within a certain distance of abortion clinics. Not so for the protesters outside this dental clinic. They are able to stage a hunt with their “cuddly toys and water pistols”, and protest in such a way that the clinic is forced to close. Not that there is any lion killing going on in the dentist’s clinic in the way that there is human being killing going on in abortion clinics.

Ricky Gervais is a good example of the self-righteous contradictory atheistic moralisers of our day. “It's not for food. It's not the shooting, or tin cans would do. It must just be the thrill of killing. Mental.” he tweets. Or is it bleats? This from the same man who advocates the killings of human beings in abortion, and is a eugenicist to boot!

"Ricky Gervais is also a eugenicist. He promotes mandatory sterilization. This was evident in an interview he gave to the London Sunday Times over the weekend. He called for the mandatory sterilization of those whom he called 'irresponsible parents'.

"This was not an off handed comment by a controversialist comic. The interview makes that clear. He told the reporter there were “too many unwanted children, too many people who are poor and struggling…. If they all had a good quality of life, no one would complain. What there is, is too many useless people. Too many people who shouldn’t have children.”

Same old problem with the bien pensants: they love humanity in the general but hate it in the particular.

So lions are to be protected from predatory hunters (and I would agree with that), but the unborn, and children with severe disabilities are not be protected against predatory doctors and nurses.

No wonder then that filmed evidence of Planned Parenthood in the US selling foetal body parts for profit is simply not being reported in the mainstream liberal media. Silence rules, OK. Such is the power of the media taboo where uncomfortable truths are brought to them, truths which undermine their facile and stupendously irrational belief that abortion is a matter of choice for the woman and affects no one else.

And the bien pensants now want to slay the messenger. They want to go after the ones who brought this evidence to public notice and sue them into oblivion. PPF is not only not to be defunded by the State, it is to be applauded for making good use of the waste products of a simple surgical procedure (sic).

“Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” Ye gods and little fishes!

New guidance say doctors and nurses must provide water to the dying. The
National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has drafted new
guidance demanding that patients have access to fluids. The Liverpool
Care Pathway which was withdrawn last year saw elderly and other
vulnerable patients denied food and fluids, often without their
knowledge or consent, or that of their relatives. However such practices
may still be going on, albeit under different names. Roger Goss from
Patient Concern commented saying: “It is shocking that this has to be
spelled out to doctors and nurses”. [Telegraph, 29 July]
Antonia Tully of the Patients First Network said: “We are still seeing a
lack of confidence among relatives about the way in which vulnerable
patients are cared for. We are continuing to advise family and friends
to maintain constant vigilance to make sure that those they love receive
basic care, including food and water.”

Tuesday, 28 July 2015

Shortly after the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act was passed, parents in Birmingham contacted SPUC's Safe at School about a programme called CHIPS (Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools) which had been introduced in their children's primary schools. This teaching programme, for children aged 5-11, is blatant promotion of same sex "families" and transgender behaviour.

Safe at School was advising and supporting Birmingham parents in their efforts to protect their children. On two occasions SPUC's Safe at School was prevented from holding a public meeting in Birmingham to inform parents of the content and nature of CHIPS.

As is well known, primary schools in Birmingham have been the subject of the so-called "Trojan Horse" plot - an alleged bid by hard line Islamists to take over some Birmingham schools.
During the annual conference of the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), 1-3 May 2015, a headteacher of a Birmingham primary school said that the problems of Trojan Horse had "not gone away". This headteacher, who had been featured in the national press because CHIPS is taught in her school, made claims that teachers in Birmingham had received death threats and dead cats and dogs had been hung on school railings and thrown into some school playgrounds.

On Monday 4 May, the claims about dead animals and death threats made at the NAHT conference, were discussed on LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation) radio. The show's host, Nick Ferrari, asked Rob Kelsall of the NAHT who he thought was behind the incidents with dead animals. Mr Kelsall replied: “There is a group called the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child [sic] that has unfortunately been agitating parents in some parts of the communities in Birmingham.”

The meaning of Mr Kelsall's statement was clearly that SPUC was responsible for the activities described at the NAHT conference.

SPUC mounted a legal challenge to both LBC and the NAHT and an apology was broadcast on LBC on Friday 24 July as follows:

On my show on 4 May 2015 Rob Kelsall, an officer of the National Association of Head Teachers discussed the unlawful activities of some people in Birmingham opposed to the teaching of a local programme called “Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools. In that context Mr Kelsall named The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. Mr Kelsall wishes to clarify that he did not intend to imply that The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children was responsible for or in any way involved in any unlawful activity as he entirely accepts that this is not the case and through me he apologises to the Society.

Friday, 24 July 2015

As I blogged earlier today, Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum, the Chairman of the health department of the Ghanaian Catholic Bishops' Conference and Bishop for Koforidua Diocese, said earlier this week:

“as the leadership of the Catholic Church in Ghana, we the Bishops recognize that a grave responsibility is imposed on us by our apostolic mandate to reiterate the Church’s true and beautiful teachings on the sanctity of life, the beauty of love, the purity of marriage and family life and the dignity of human sexuality”.

I am delighted that the Ghanaian Catholic bishops' conference are clearly linking marriage (the permanent exclusive union of one man and one woman) to the protection of human life. Earlier this year I spoke at Cleveland Right to Life's Convention "Bringing America Back to Life" and, if you have time, you can view my talk entitled "Why the Pro-Life Movement must embrace the defence of marriage and the family or face defeat".

I also made it clear in my talk that pro-life victory can only be won when church leaders who can reach out to millions of faithful worldwide are working together with the pro-life movement in the unambiguous proclamation of the pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-family message. That's why the forthcoming Family Synod in Rome is so critical. Please pray for its outcome.

The Bishop in Charge of Health of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 launched a Pro-Life Conference, which is aimed at leading Ghanaians to a deeper reflection of the Gospel of Life and appreciating of the sanctity of life, purity of marriage and the dignity of human sexuality.

The two-day Conference (in which I will have the honour to participate on behalf of SPUC) will be held at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra from Saturday, August 7 to Sunday, August 8, 2015 on the theme: Promoting Life and Family Values in the Continuing Culture of Death.

In October 2014, the Holy Father, Pope Francis convoked an Extraordinary Synod on the family in Rome to enable the Church to reflect on the vocation and mission of the family in the contemporary world and to fashion a response to the very challenges that the family of today faces.

Bishops at the Synod observed that over the years, but most importantly in recent times, there had been an increasing encroachment of the proponents of the culture of death in almost every part of the world including Africa.

From African bishops the Synod discovered that the spread of the culture of death was evident in the persistent attempts by some international organisations, wealthy nations and philanthropists to limit, suppress and even destroy the source of human life among Africans.

Launching the Conference at the National Catholic Secretariat, Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum said that recognizing that Ghana is at the heart of the storm and struggle between the culture of life and culture of death in Africa necessitated the organisation of the Conference.

“Realizing the urgent need for the Church in Ghana to rise up and promote the Gospel of life in speaking against the emerging culture of death in Ghana,” was also one of the reasons for the conference, he added.

He noted that the Conference was to strengthen the witness of the faithful and other Christians to promote the dignity of life from conception to natural death; promote long cherished values of family life such as unity, indissolubility, openness to life and incorporating government, leaders and people in the project of building an authentic culture of life in Ghana.

He said that “The Catholic Church acknowledges the important role she has to play in concert with other like-minded Christian groups and Civil Society Organisations in renewing a pro-life mission in the world and calling on contemporary society to a deeper reflection of the Gospel of life.”

He said “as the leadership of the Catholic Church in Ghana, we the Bishops recognize that a grave responsibility is imposed on us by our apostolic mandate to reiterate the Church’s true and beautiful teachings on the sanctity of life, the beauty of love, the purity of marriage and family life and the dignity of human sexuality.”

Bishop Afrifah-Agyekum, said the Conference was aimed at teaching and training the faithful to understand the Gospel of life and to stand and defend the pro-life position of the Church.

In an interview after the launching, the Bishop said the unconditional respect for the right to life of every innocent person from the moment of conception to natural death is one of the pillars upon which every civil society stands and therefore the State has the primary duty to defend life.

To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of family values and the common good, he added, stating that there can be no democracy without the recognition of every person’s dignity nor can there be a guarantee of true peace unless life is defended and promoted.

He lamented that the culture of death was emerging in Africa in a form of population control measures being proposed and propagated in African Nations by some multi-national organisations which had implanted themselves in Africa as a Family Planning Organisations.

He noted that in reality, these organisations were promoting unnatural and artificial means of birth control such as abortion, sterilization, vasectomies, the use of condoms over and above the natural family planning the Catholic Church upholds.

Activities lined-up for the two-day Conference include, a prayer campaign had been declared in all parishes, rectorates and stations from July 22, 2015, lectures by both local and international speakers on August 7, 2015; a pro-life/pro-family match from the from the Holy Spirit cathedral through some principal streets of Accra on August 8, 2015 and the issuing of a communiqué and the encouragement of the mass-media to take up the pro-life campaign throughout the country.

The press launch was attended by members of the Ghana Medical and Ethics Commission, Staff of the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS), and Diocesan Directors of Communications.

Thursday, 23 July 2015

The video simply provides anecdotal evidence supporting the overwhelming case in support of marriage, the lifelong union of a man and woman which is open to children, as the best social context for children to be raised.

No other grouping offers such a high level of that security and stability that human beings need to flourish. Research shows overwhelmingly that children growing up within marriage do better in terms of health, educational success, careers and their own marriages. It is precisely because children matter, that real marriage between one man and one woman matters so much.

In the British context and no doubt elsewhere in the world, we should never tire of pointing out that Government statistics show that (in Britain) children conceived outside of marriage are 4 to 5 times more likely to be aborted than those conceived within marriage.

Tragically, last month, the US Supreme Court,ruled there is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, which no state may deny. In doing so they may well have been misled by research from the American Sociological Association (ASA).

The ASA has weighed in strongly supporting same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting with the potent claim that “the clear and consistent social science consensus is that children raised by same sex parents fare just as well as children raised by different sex parents.” This is a selective and dishonest reading of the research.

In a devastating critique, of the ASA, which can be read in full, Pat Fagan details four national survey reports that, through their sample size, give the lie completely to the ASA’s assertions.

We must do everything we can, without fear, if we truly care about children, born and/or unborn, to resist the march of the ideological footsoldiers of the homosexual "rights" lobby not least in their moment of triumph in the US and in Ireland.

Ettore (Finaldi) is 15 and at St Thomas More school in Eltham, south London. He belongs to an Italian family and is the eldest of five children.

He came to SPUC's HQ in London to do work experience, and to learn about pro-life work, and he was very much impressed and inspired - as you will see from the letter of thanks received yesterday from Rhoslyn Thomas, SPUC's youth officer and Ettore's line manager whilst he was working for the Society.

Dear Miss Thomas,
I am writing to thank you for giving me a placement at SPUC. I really enjoyed it. I feel I have learned a great deal whilst I was here about the pro-life movement. I particularly enjoyed the trip to the Houses of Parliament and writing the blog. What I found most interesting was how we put the data [concerning new pro-life supporters] into a database. I have also loved working with the great staff.
This has given me an insight into the world of work and I have loved the independence, and using my time for a brilliant cause. Working in the pro-life field has shown me that I want to join SPUC in the future. I will definitely be going for the internship in three years’ time, I have also spoken to Elizabeth Foody about volunteering here in the near future when I have holidays! I would just like to thank you again for this great opportunity.
Yours sincerely
Ettore Finaldi

I don't know about you, but I love Ettore's vision, his sense of independence and his clear commitment to the pro-life cause. I hope he inspires you too ...

Tuesday, 21 July 2015

One of SPUC's most important activities is to be a virtually constant presence at the United Nations where we battle for the right to life of unborn children.

Pat Buckley and Peter Smith are the Society's representatives at the UN - and they are there right now during the final stage of the ongoing negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets (of which more another day) ... Spare a prayer for them, if you would.

Between them, Pat and Peter have clocked up 35 years of patient lobbying of UN delegations from around the world. In great measure, it is thanks to their work (and the work of our international pro-life collaborators) that, for all their terrifying power, the pro-abortion lobby has failed to establish abortion as an internationally-recognised "human right".

SPUC’s UN envoy Patrick Buckley made a powerful intervention in defence of the right to life of unborn babies at the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva last week. The Committee is preparing a new General Comment for Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. A discussion day on the Article gathered together key people and representatives of organisations worldwide on both sides of the debate. You can read below Patrick Buckley’s intervention made following SPUC’s written submission at the Human Rights Committee:

Honourable members of the Human Rights Committee,

My name is Patrick Buckley and I speak on behalf of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

We have submitted a comprehensive document setting out the reasons unborn babies deserve protection before as well as after birth, both from the point of view of international law and of relevant scientific research.

This Committee has afforded itself a once in a generation opportunity to consider the implications of Article 6 of the ICCPR but we remind the members that in accordance with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties they cannot reinterpret the provisions of the Treaty or expand its meaning.

The basic question is, will the Committee do the right thing and use this opportunity to protect the right to life of the most vulnerable human beings? Or on the other hand will the Committee bow to the ongoing demands of the abortion lobby and attempt to establish a right to kill the unborn rather than logically interpreting the International Bill of Rights and specifically the ICCPR in accordance with its provisions and in accordance with the provisions of the Vienna Convention?

Based on sound science, human embryos, from the moment of fertilisation, are new living human beings because of their unique genome and their ability to direct their own development. To use the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 we are all members of the “human family”. So we say that from the moment of fertilisation we all share a common humanity and that human embryos are equal members of the species homo sapiens. We also say that each stage of development is equal in value to every other stage.

There is a connection between the self-interest of certain communities and the line to be drawn between recognition of persons and non-persons. That self-interest may be driven by eugenic, economic, social or political factors such that those a society wishes to exclude are deemed to be non-persons. History is replete with examples of this phenomenon many of which have been set out in our detailed submission. This should not be allowed to happen.

However cleverly the arguments are presented the taking of a human life the killing of a human being is a heinous crime it is called murder. The killing of the defenceless, the most vulnerable human beings, the unborn baby is the most heinous of crimes and and we call on the Committee to outrightly reject it.

Denying embryonic and foetal human beings their inherent rights can only diminish the whole of humanity and hinder the search for truth that is the essence of the scientific and human endeavour.

Jus cogens (or ius cogens) is a peremptory norm of general international law from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character. The right to life of all human beings has the nature of an intransgressible norm already contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ICCPR, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

We call on the Committee to reject all practices that enable negative discrimination against human embryos and foetuses. Chief among these are the legalization of abortion and approval for all research that harms or destroys human embryos. Moreover, because human embryos and foetuses cannot consent, even research that is supposed to be directed to their benefit must only be considered with the highest degree of ethical scrutiny.

Culture of Life Africa, an international, Africa-centred, pro-life group is doing simply amazing work in Africa - as are the Catholic bishops in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and many other nations. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is proud of our association with their work.

As a Catholic, I am proud of the pro-life leadership being shown by Catholic bishops in Africa for the following reason ... they are showing themselves to be true shepherds of the universal flock of Catholics and the worldwide pro-life, pro-family movement in their prophetic opposition to abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage ideology being imposed on our children, and population control. This is happening at a time of unprecedented confusion evident at the highest levels in the Catholic Church.

Earlier this month, for example, the Catholic bishops conference of Nigeria issued a powerful resounding statement in the wake of the Irish referendum which had accepted same-sex marriage by popular vote and the US Supreme Court decision which had ruled that there is a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry, which no state may deny. The Nigerian bishops wrote:

“Accepting this western trend by officially endorsing homosexual unions or “same-sex marriage” will be devastating and detrimental to our nation, Nigeria as it will lead to the inevitable deconstruction of the family and the society at large with other serious but negative implications.”

Watch this great video from Cameroon illustrating the pro-life message of the Catholic Archdiocese of Douala, Cameroon, as well as Culture of Life Africa, led by Obianuju Ekeocha (Uju for short) and supported by French-speaking, North East England based, Jean Fleron. SPUC was grateful to be invited by Culture of Life Africa to make a modest donation to their extraordinary, outstandingly generous, pro-life work in Africa, the good consequences of which are experienced by people and nations around the world.

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

Last night SPUC Peterborough invited me to speak after Vespers at the Catholic Church of St Peter and all Souls held in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mother of the unborn) of whom the Missionary Image was visiting the parish from its shrine in Bedford.

Vespers was led by Fr Adam Sowa the parish priest. Before the meeting SPUC Peterborough Chairman, Christine Conlon, and James, her husband, took me to visit Peterborough Cathedral, where Katherine of Aragon, Queen of England, the wife of Henry VIII, is buried.

I was edified to read in the church bulletin of St Peter and All Souls that SPUC is described as upholding "all the tenets of our faith regarding protection of the unborn, sex education in schools, assisted suicide and other life issues and lobbies Parliament on our behalf".

Friday, 10 July 2015

A pharmacy in Seville has won the right to refuse to sell morning-after pills, some of which are abortifacient. The pharmacy has won the right to refuse selling the MAP despite being fined €3,000 in 2008 for not selling morning-after pills or condoms. The constitutional court has overturned the decision on appeal, stating that the pharmacy’s “right to ‘ideological freedom’ was violated by the sanction." The pharmacy can now refuse to sell the morning-after pill. However, the court said the pharmacy must still provide condoms, stating it saw “no conflict of conscience with constitutional relevance” there.[Telegraph, 7 July]
To see a full news summary for 9 July 2015, click here.
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John Smeaton

About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 39 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

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I am grateful to SPUC's staff, supporters and advisers for their help to me in researching, writing and producing this blog.

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